Zack picked up the object, not quite sure what it was. Less than two inches across and faceted all around, it shone brightly, perhaps like a ruby and an oddly square one at that. The overall size seemed too large for the item to be a gem, let alone a valuable one. He was no gem expert, though. All he could really see was that the item reflected light from deep within and eve from the other side like what one would expect from a gemstone.

He passed the ‘gem’ around from palm to palm. The object demonstrated little heft. Holding it close up, he could see a much darker red towards the middle. He then started studying the edges of the object. While turning it over between his fingertips, his thumb felt an extra scrap on one side. Rotating to that side revealed a sizable slit that was not apparent from any other side.

Not sure what to expect, he hammered the slit side of the item against his palm.

The dark spot visibly moved.

He continued hammering until something gray appeared near the slit. Another jolt or two later and he was able to gingerly coax the item out with his nails.

More gray slid out from the slit, flat and unmarked. When it was completely removed from its container, its shape was revealed to be largely rectangular, flat and containing a bus port.

A game cartridge.

Why?

The cartridge had no label. Looking over its container again, he found no mention of its purpose.

Zach leaned against a nearby tree. Doing so caused another, blindly bright light to flicker across his face. Shielding this light with his available hand, he stepped towards its source. After only two steps, he landed in a clearing. Looking around, he observed the scorched remains of a spent campfire and broken bottles all around. Following the bright light brought him to one such bottle, which happened to have once contained beer. Zach lightly kicked it into the shade.

The clearing gave other hints of once being a campsite. The grass was either flattened or worn away throughout the clearing. Other foliage didn’t pass the boundaries of the site. Other paraphernalia could be seen in the ashes of the spent fire, from a burnt hotdog to wrappers. A faint sent of light fluid could be detected as well.

Zach looked to the cartridge and holder in his hand, to the campsite and then back to the cartridge.

This does not add up.

He went back to the area where he found the cartridge and looked back towards the campsite. With the exception of the former light from the bottle, the foliage was so thick between the cartridge and the campsite as to completely hide any hint of a nearby clearing.

Zach pursed his lips, thinking. He tossed the cartridge in one hand and glanced back to the campsite. Taking another close look at the cartridge and ruby red container, he decided to collect data on the area as he found it.

Placing the cartridge back into the container, her placed the combined item back on the ground. He then pulled out his phone and started photographing the entire area, jotting down notes on the phone as well. Finally, he took some GPS readings. Well, sort of.

Why is this taking so long?

Just as he was about to give up, an estimated position popped up.

Finally!

He debated on taking more but decided against it with the first reading taking so long. There was also more ground to cover and limited time.

The investigator barreled forward through the brush, continuing the loop back to the emergency exit. After less than ten minutes, he heard a voice forward and off to the right. It wasn’t clear so he veered a bit to the right and upped the pace.

The voice stopped and then started again. This time he could just discern the voice.

“Zack! Pick up your phone!”

Sasha?

“Why isn’t it connecting? Zack!”

He started jumping over the brush, grasping any nearby branch for added balance.

“Ack!”

“Sasha!”

“Over here!”

Zach bounded out of the brush, landing right in front of Sasha, who was standing in front of the emergency exit door.

Suddenly he felt a weight glide over his foot.

Frozen, he moved his gaze along with Sasha down to his foot.

There by his foot, a thick tail slid by and behind.

The two humans looked at each other and both shouted, “Possum!”

Zach jumped back and to the left.

The possum skittered away into the underbrush but no farther.

The investigator slowly sidestepped back to the head researcher.

As he approached, she blurted out, “It won’t leave!”

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“Huh?”

“I mean just that. I tried spooking it, but it just tried to bolt past me.” She jabbed a thumb towards the door. “And past the door. It’s not even trying to play dead.”

Zach looked back to now bolted shut door, a wave of dread passing over. “Do you think it might have rabies?”

They exchanged horrified looks.

A large furry blur darted before them and to the left. The humans jumped back, startled. The brush next to the door largely hid the creature, except for its tail. It appears to sniff around for a bit before hopping up.

The humans sidestepped to the right to see better but without getting any closer.

The possum continued to climb up the frame of the door, undisturbed. Most of the way up, the foliage thinned to the point of revealing its white face and most of its gray body. It was a large possum, the size of a large cat. At the top, it nosed its way under some leaves there and slid out of sight.

They waited for a moment or two, exchanging looks, but there was no more sign of a moving possum. Finally, Zach motioned Sasha to keep watching. He squatted down reaching into the brush.

“What are you doing?” Sasha whispered.

“Getting a stick.” He pulled out a branch and cleared the extraneous leaves. He cautiously approached the door, stick pointed towards the top of the frame. Picking along the top of the frame, the stick caught right at the middle. Gritting his teeth, he jumped, grabbed the frame and pulled himself up.

“What are you doing?!” she fiercely whispered again.

Zach dug his foot into the branches on the right side. “I’m trying to – oomph!” He sifted around more to enable his arm to reach into where the stick had caught. “I’m trying to see where …”

“Where what?”

He felt around under the leaves. “There’s a hole here … in a grating … big hole!”

He dropped down to see Sasha’s face morph into one of dread. Zach felt the need to copy her expression.

“Is that where – ”

Sasha nodded in the form of a vibration. “Yes.”

Zach pinched the bridge of his nose. He did not want to be there when the possum found invaders outside of its nest and running over its cookie stash.

“We better get back.”

Zach gave a short nod. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

They hiked around the outside of the company complex with Sasha leading. It took a while to pick their way back to complex fence, but then the way became easier as there was less brush to swim though. Once they rounded the fence corner, the brush turned to moved lawn.

At this point Zach took a deep breath, absentmindedly shoving one hand into a pocket, which wasn’t empty.

Right.

He pulled out the container and started hammering the cartridge out once again. Speeding up to walk alongside her, he tried to get her attention.

Sasha waved here hand in weariness, responding, “We’re almost back – what’s that?”

“I was hoping you’d be able to answer that.” At this point he had the cartridge out again. Handing it over, he added, “It looks like a game cartridge.”

She turned it over in her palm. “It’s not.”

“It’s not a cartridge?”

“Well, yes, it’s a cartridge, but not a game cartridge, I think. It looks a ROM cartridge.” She looked up . thinking. “Maybe…Ho, I don’t know. I’ll ask around after we get back.”

The main entrance was now within sight.

“Oh, shoot!”

“What is it?”

“My keys are in my office underground. I hope the front office is still open.”

She handed back the cartridge and started jogging towards the entrance. Reaching there she pounded on the door and peered in.

Zach came up beside again and showed her his phone.

5:02pm.

Sasha groaned loudly. Leaning up against the wall, she pulled out her phone. “At least I have service now.” She then proceeded to search and try some numbers.

Zach looked back at his own phone. He also now had full service. Looking towards Sasha, he figured that they could be waiting a while, so he decided to take another GPS reading.

Luckily, Sasha found success with the second number she tried. A few minutes later and another member approached the door, phone still up to her ear. Opening the door, this employee said, “How did you get out here without your keys?”

Sasha quickly mumbled some sort of an explanation and picked up the landline. After dialing, she added, “I’ll tell you about the whole thing tomorrow, okay?”

The employee crossed her arms and glared at Sasha.

Sasha ignored the glare and waited. She then tried dialing again. On the third try, Bunker Ditch finally picked up.

“Finally,” she breathed and then returned to her normal voice, “Yes – uh.” She paused. “Hello? Hello? Pick up!”

The employee turned to Zach. “And you are?”

He responded, “A visitor –”

“Yes, hello, Johnny? It’s Sasha … No, I’m not there. I’m at the front office … No, I didn’t go for a coffee break … or a jog … You’re the only one who does that! Johnny? Johnny!” At this point, she facepalmed. Both Zach and the employee approached the phone. Audible noises of clamoring and shouting could be heard from the earpiece.

“I take it that they found the possum,” Zach suggested.

“It sure sounds like it – Yes? Josh! Oh, thank – Yeah … Uh huh … Yeah … Well, then get up here and let me back in then!” She paused before adding, “And call animal control!” She slammed down the phone.

“Possum?” the employee repeated.

“Possum,” Zach verified. “And don’t forget the black widow from earlier!”

Sasha glared at him. “You find this funny?”

He shook his head. “I’m too tired to not find this funny.”

“You are the total opposite of Johnny, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know him that well, so I can’t comment.” He flashed a toothy grin.

Thankfully, Josh arrived then and the whole group, plus the employee who let the others in earlier, went back down to Bunker Ditch.

The possum had indeed been discovered. It was hard not to as it fell from the ceiling and onto the technician’s laptop. That laptop is now broken. It then scurried into the tunnel. After that, no one was quite sure what happened. The technician attempted to retrieve the camera and toy cars, but those items became mysteriously stuck. Yanking on the metal cord did nothing to free the objects.

And then a baby possum appeared from the ductwork under the entrance to the bunker. This one scurried about until it too disappeared into the tunnel. Except, then there were more. At this point, Sasha was attempting to call anyone within the bunker. No one answered at first, due to the all-encompassing attention the little possums were demanding. Everyone in the bunker was called in for a possum round up. At least that’s how Zach phrased it later. After the third try to call the bunker, Johnny bothered to pick up the phone. Apparently, he didn’t make much sense on the phone and Josh wound up taking over when he heard Johnny yell Sasha’s name.

The state of the bunker when Sasha and Zach returned was the same as before, but devoid of people. The emergency exit on the other hand was chaos. People, possums, crushed equipment all swirling about.

Sasha took a deep breath. “FREEZE” she screamed.

And just as she had ordered, everyone froze, including the possums.

The employee from behind whispered to Sasha, “I’ll see about some nets.”

“Thank you!”

About a half hour later, six of the nine possums were rounded up in various nets. Animal control couldn’t come until the following morning and suggested tossing the six possums in with the mother, so that the mother wouldn’t come looking for them. Animal control would deal with the problem when they got there.

Things became fuzzy after that. What was said where and to whom became blended into dissonant white noise. Eventually, the opening to the new tunnel was covered and the entrance between the bunker and emergency exit was sealed. That was enough for today.

Zach collapsed into his car, unsure of whether to laugh or cry. This was not how he pictured his day going, but, wow, it would make for a story to tell later.

His glanced at his phone to check the time, but found a text message from Maria.

Work from home tomorrow.

There’s been a fire.